Critical Schwinger Pair Production

Gies, Holger; Torgrimsson, Greger

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.090406

Cited by 52 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Because the instanton trajectory grows very large for small E α /m α , the asymptotic behavior of the field (for large x 1 ) dominates since the "instanton spends most of its time there", see also [77]. We can calculate both the turning points and the instanton action to leading order in E α /m α by considering an electric field that asymptotically corresponds to a Coulomb potential.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Schneider

Schützhold

2016

J. High Energ. Phys.

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Via the world-line instanton method, we study electron-positron pair creation by a strong (but sub-critical) electric field of the profile E/ cosh 2 (kx) superimposed by a weaker pulse E / cosh 2 (ωt). If the temporal Keldysh parameter γ ω = mω/(qE) exceeds a threshold value γ crit ω which depends on the spatial Keldysh parameter γ k = mk/(qE), we find a drastic enhancement of the pair creation probability -reporting on what we believe to be the first analytic non-perturbative result for the interplay between temporal and spatial field dependences E(t, x) in the Sauter-Schwinger effect. Finally, we speculate whether an analogous effect (drastic enhancement of tunneling probability) could occur in other scenarios such as stimulated nuclear decay, for example.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Schneider

Schützhold

2016

J. High Energ. Phys.

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“…the imaginary part of the one-loop QED effective action exhibits universal properties similar to those of continuous phase transitions [38,39]. According to our terminology, this occurs when the Klein zone is sufficiently small, as in the case of strong fields in the sharp-gradient regime.…”

Section: Sharp-gradient Configurationmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Thus, on the Figs. 6 and 7 we present transmission probabilities both for scalar and Fermi cases given analytically by exact expressions (99), (38) and by appropriate asymptotic representations discussed in Sec. 4.…”

Section: Comparing Asymptotic Estimates With Exact Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vacuum instability in a constant inhomogeneous electric field: a new example of exact nonperturbative calculations

2020

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Basic quantum processes (such as particle creation, reflection, and transmission on the corresponding Klein steps) caused by inverse-square electric fields are calculated. These results represent a new example of exact nonperturbative calculations in the framework of QED.The inverse-square electric field is time-independent, inhomogeneous in the x-direction, and is inversely proportional to x squared. We find exact solutions of the Dirac and Klein-Gordon equations with such a field and construct corresponding in-and out-states. With the help of these states and using the techniques developed in the framework of QED with x-electric potential steps, we calculate characteristics of the vacuum instability, such as differential and total mean numbers of particles created from the vacuum and vacuum-to-vacuum transition probabilities. We study the vacuum instability for two particular backgrounds: for fields * widely stretches over the x-axis (small-gradient configuration) and for the fields sharply concentrates near the origin x = 0 (sharp-gradient configuration). We compare exact results with ones calculated numerically. Finally, we consider the electric field configuration, composed by inverse-square fields and by an x-independent electric field between them to study the role of growing and decaying processes in the vacuum instability.

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“…expected. This might be a hint towards a critical point in a time-dependent, spatially inhomogeneous, high-intensity field [76]. Such an investigation, however, is beyond the scope of this article, and will be addressed elsewhere.…”

Section: Strong Magnetic Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 93%

On the effect of time-dependent inhomogeneous magnetic fields in electron–positron pair production

Kohlfürst

Alkofer

2016

Physics Letters B

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Electron-positron pair production in spatially and temporally inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields is studied within the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism (quantum kinetic theory) through computing the corresponding Wigner functions. The focus is on discussing the particle momentum spectrum regarding signatures of Schwinger and multiphoton pair production. Special emphasis is put on studying the impact of a strong dynamical magnetic field on the particle distribution functions. As the equal-time Wigner approach is formulated in terms of partial integro-differential equations an entire section of the manuscript is dedicated to present numerical solution techniques applicable to Wigner function approaches in general.

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Critical Schwinger Pair Production

Cited by 52 publications

References 78 publications

Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Vacuum instability in a constant inhomogeneous electric field: a new example of exact nonperturbative calculations

On the effect of time-dependent inhomogeneous magnetic fields in electron–positron pair production

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